Ed Fowle can’t begin to express how incredibly grateful and relieved he feels that his son is still alive.

The devoted father was convinced that he would have lost his son, Charles, to drugs without the intervention of faithful Catholics who led them to Comunita Cenacolo, a Catholic-based community program in Florida that has helped thousands of young adults recover from addiction.

“I would say that the Holy Spirit was absolutely at work in Charles’ life,” Ed said. “I’m looking at a miracle now. My prayers are answered. I’m here to tell you that miracles do happen.”

Charles, an Ohio State University graduate and Columbus resident, had battled addiction for about 10 years. He’d get clean for a while and then relapse. None of the traditional rehabilitation programs worked. He estimated he tried “probably 12 times.”

He had moved back home to Columbus after being out on his own for several years as a working adult who was addicted to drugs, but after a while he decided he should leave his family home and attempt to gain some independence. He ended up in a homeless shelter in downtown Columbus.

Charles found himself with nowhere to go but the streets each morning after staying the night at the shelter. He ended up walking across the street to St. Patrick Church in downtown Columbus for a place to relax.

He didn’t realize that St. Patrick has a 7 a.m. Mass each morning. The lapsed Catholic hadn’t been to Mass in 10 years, but suddenly found himself in a church with a Mass taking place.

One day after Mass, a parishioner approached and asked him to join a small group remaining in the church to pray the rosary. Feeling somewhat overwhelmed, he initially turned down the offer. But Fran Kempf, who regularly attended the morning Mass, and Dr. Dennis Doody, another daily communicant, began talking to him.

“They came to me and they really wanted to help me,” Charles said. “I probably stuck out because I was all scraggly and was pretty rough looking.

"Looking back now, if I didn’t meet her, I don’t know where I’d be.”

Kempf recalled that the meeting came on the feast of the Archangels in late September.

“I noticed Charlie because he looked like he was homeless and figured he came from (the nearby) Faith Mission,” she explained. “So I went up and introduced myself. He seemed like a nice guy, and so I invited him to come up and say the rosary after Mass with us. He wasn’t ready to do that.

“But it did kind of strike up a little relationship between us. And then we just started talking after Mass, and he started bringing his dad with him.”

Charles opened up about his struggles with addiction. After hearing his story, Kempf recalled a visit years earlier to Comunita Cenacolo and thought it would be a good fit for him. Doody was also familiar with the program.

“I had listened to the stories of the women down there who had gone through so many rehab programs,” she said. “Some had been drug addicts since they were young girls. They had been through other programs and nothing worked, but they admitted it was their time before the Blessed Sacrament -- and just the love that they had for that community -- that changed them.”

Charles expressed some reluctance at first. He was still addicted and the program house was far from home in Florida. The minimum three-year commitment also seemed a bit daunting, but his dad encouraged him to go there and Charles agreed.

“(Charlie) said, ‘This is what I need. This is what I want,’” Kempf recounted. “This is what I'm looking for. And so his dad just jumped right in on it. And they went down for a visit almost immediately.

“I could tell that (Charles) was really a prayerful man. When you talk to people, you can kind of feel whether they're receiving (your message) or not. You could see that in his face.”

Comunita Cenacolo was founded in Italy in 1983 by Mother Elvira Petrozzi, a member of the Sisters of Divine Charity order. Since then, it has expanded to 20 other countries, including the United States in 1993.

The unique Catholic program combines prayer and work for a community of individuals battling various addictions (mostly drugs) and issues that is detached from the outside world. There are two houses each in the U.S. for men and women, ranging in age from 18 into their 30s, in Florida and Alabama. (More details about the community can be found in a related story in this issue.)

Parents of the individuals are required to participate as well to support their family members. Once a month, mandatory regional parent meetings are held around the country. Ed traveled to Michigan monthly for a regional meeting with other parents while Charlie was in the program. Each spring and fall, parents are invited to Comunita Cenacolo for festivals.

“The things they’re doing there … this is one of the best-kept secrets for Catholics in this country,” Ed said.

After Charles was accepted into Comunita Cenacolo at age 31, he began the process of radical transformation. 

“The first moment I stepped out of the car to go I knew my life was going to be different,” Charles said. “And I think at that moment my cravings were exchanged for the love of God.”

He described the community’s 10-acre property as “out in the middle of nowhere” in rural Florida in the vicinity of St. Augustine. Between 20 and 30 men live there at a time. The program normally takes three years to complete. 

Mornings began at 5 a.m. with prayer in the chapel. Each day was filled with prayer and work on the property. The community is self-sustainable, relying on older members to shepherd the newer arrivals. There is little contact with the outside world. Cellphones and TV are not allowed. 

Charles compared the community to the Amish way of life.

“It was almost like the military,” he said. “It allows you to really detach and really focus on what you need to do.

“You had to get up and go to the chapel. And we would do Eucharistic adoration. That was the key to everything. That’s what made the difference.”

The rosary was prayed three times a day between work and meals. Work included gardening, beekeeping, kitchen duty, keeping the property in good condition, and a wood shop,

“We all had jobs we’d be responsible for and there was a head of the house who had been there for a couple of years who directed who would do which jobs,” Charles said. “It was real simple living.”

There was also time for recreation and, of course, the celebration of the Mass. The men were able to interact with many priests from all over the world who came in to offer Mass.

“So you really become connected to the Catholic faith,” Charles said. “That’s the difference between other rehabs. You really had to change your life.

“I started going to adoration and I wanted to go at night. That was where I felt connected to God. Jesus actually became alive in my mind.”

During the previous 10 years before entering Comunita Cenacolo while Charles was addicted to heroin and later crystal meth, God or the Church were not on his mind. 

“I prayed so hard so many times and I thought for sure I was going to lose Charles,” his father said. “There are so many stories about overdoses. He was just on the edge and it was heart wrenching to see him in pain with terrible withdrawals.”

Charles had tried heroin for the first time at age 21 when he was a student at Ohio State. He became addicted to the drug but somehow managed to graduate from college.

After college, he landed a job and continued to work while using the drug. He began to try rehab programs after several years, but nothing worked.

“I think the longest time I stayed sober was about a year,” he said. I struggled mentally while being addicted. I was maintaining a life. I lived with my parents and was able to live on my own at one point and had a girlfriend.”

Five years after college, he said he experienced a bad relapse and went to California to enter a rehab program. After a year there, he went to Hawaii, where his sister had moved, and he was sober for about a year before getting introduced to crystal meth.

“I tried it once and kept doing it because it gave me the energy to work hard and to be productive and organized,” he said. “But then I started getting hallucinations and I’d stay up for days. Very terrifying stuff was going on in my mind. It did some serious mental damage.”

He decided after about a year or so after becoming addicted to crystal meth to move back to Columbus. 

“I still struggled,” he said. “I started using meth again. And that was the very bottom. I feel pretty hopeless. I was broke and didn’t have any way of getting it.”

That’s when he left home for the shelter and, providentially, found his way to St. Patrick Church.

“I don’t know, there was just something inside that I felt like communicating with God and had an attraction to Jesus,” he said. “My dad had taken us to Mass every Sunday as kids, but I didn’t like it or understand anything then.

“When I was having my hallucinations, I was absolutely fascinated about seeing Jesus and God and talking to me. I know Jesus was a part of my life that I didn’t understand and that’s when I went to St. Patrick’s and sat there for hours at a time.

“The Eucharistic Lord and adoration really made a profound difference. That was the turning point when I saw Jesus face to face like that. I knew my prayers had to be heard.”

Today, seven years after spending three years at Comunita Cenacolo, Charlie said he finally feels like he’s fully recovered from the mental and physical devastation of drug use. He continues to meet with a counselor and attributes medication to helping with his hallucinations, depression and anxiety.   

He now has a good job and continues to be a faithful, practicing Catholic as a member of St. Patrick Church. Earlier this summer, he helped bring a nephew who lost his father in a car accident into the Church, supporting him in the reception of Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation.

“He seems to be doing really great now,” Kempf said. “Charlie's a great young man and he’s got a good story to tell.”